Danielle Cohen can’t say enough about her 98-year-old grandfather.
“(He is) the friendliest, most loving man,” she said. “He’s a big flirt, loves all the ladies that take care of him.”
Since last fall he has lived happily and healthily in a nursing home in Broward County.
But on July 15, he got a memo saying effective July 20, there would be a dedicated COVID-19 unit inside the nursing home.
The state has 23 COVID-19 isolation centers in nursing homes across the state. They can either be a whole nursing home, or a portion of one.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has praised them as a way to protect the most vulnerable population while also freeing up hospital beds. But some of the centers are just units or wings within nursing homes.
In Central Florida, there are five isolation centers: Two in Orange County, one in Brevard County and one in Polk County.
Click here to see a full list of isolation centers in the state
Residents who test positive can be moved to one of these centers if they don’t need to be hospitalized, or if they’re well enough to leave the hospital but still need some care or more time in isolation.
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But Cohen has some concerns.
“How is this even allowed?” she asked. “We’ve got the most vulnerable population living in this building - why are we putting them more at risk?”
Cohen said she also wants to know why residents and their families weren’t given a say in the matter.
“And they certainly weren’t even given enough time to try to have their families and lived ones try to make alternative arrangements,” she said.
She said among her biggest concerns is, “How this wing, this hallway, was essentially going to be sealed off from the rest of the building physically, but also in terms of air circulation?”
Florida’s Agency of Health Care Administration told Eyewitness News that the centers will have their own dedicated staff.
A spokesperson also said they will receive enhanced oversight, but did not go into detail.
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We asked the agency to show what guidance it gave nursing homes on how to safely create the centers, and whether the centers were inspected before COVID-positive patients were moved in, but the spokesperson hasn’t yet responded.
Eyewitness News reached out to all five Central Florida isolation centers but have heard back from only one so far.
In a written statement, Oakbridge Care Center in Lakeland said:
“Oakbridge is proud to be among the first skilled nursing centers to have been selected by Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration as a COVID-19 Isolation and Recovery Center, serving the Lakeland community and surrounding counties. Our entire center is dedicated to caring for COVID-positive patients who do not require hospitalization, but do require isolation and a safe place to receive excellent care while on their road to recovery. Thanks to our amazing team of caregivers and staff, our center has successfully “graduated” 158 patients back to their original setting COVID-free. We appreciate the partnership of the local and state healthcare agencies, hospital partners, and local community members that make it possible, each and every day, to serve in this capacity during such a critical time.”
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